Box-shaped containers of this type, which may be made from plastic material and from an injection molded process, are already known in the prior art. Examples of these are German Patent DE-U 81 37 907, German Patent DE-U 89 03 430 and EP-A-O 86 313. The containers disclosed in the prior art, however, do not disclose containers which have the advantage of having their entire interior base surface, which provides planar support for commodities to be stored therein, while at the same time providing for a perfect support contact face for the box-shaped container, created by planar straps located beneath the base or bottom of the box. These planar straps, which are taught by the present invention, assure a high degree of stability for the container independently of whether the container is loaded or unloaded.
Box-shaped containers of the type disclosed by the present invention have inwardly oriented boundary edges for the flat straps, which form a base area, and which are spaced from the bottom base stiffening ribs, extending spaced therefrom and parallel to them, creating passages which open towards the bottom in the pocket-like bounded free spaces. This results in the advantage that the pocket-like free spaces, located between the lower side of the base, the upper side of the flat straps and the laterally oriented stiffening ribs, can be shaped with the use of conventional plastic injection molding tools. Further, the openings or passages provided at the ends of the free spaces, which face away from each other, enable a nearly unobstructed passageway for cleaning liquids so that these free spaces and the base structure adjacent thereto can be washed out and, therefore, undesirable residues removed from the base structure of the container. The base structure adjacent these free spaces can be cleaned, for instance, with liquids dispensed from cleaning jets. This is an important and beneficial feature especially if the box-shaped container is utilized in an industry where a hygienically clean state must be maintained.
The disadvantages associated with the plastic-made, box-shaped containers of the prior art also lies in the fact that their utilization has usually been limited to those instances where an excessive bend-through of the base, caused by the weight load of stored commodities, could only be eliminated by utilizing stiffening ribs on the bottom side of the base. The present invention provides for an improvement over the prior art containers in that the box container of the present invention enjoys the structural integrity of having stiffening ribs located integral with its base structure while, at the same time, provides a container which can be fabricated by molding plastic materials using injection molding techniques.